Brands use Pinterest to build brand personality and inspire trends and influencers through instant social sharing. Pins are typically centered around major life events such as weddings and holidays. Users create theme-based collections through the site’s virtual pinboards. Dialogue is generated through the simple act of Pinning, Repinning, Liking and commenting on images taken on a smartphone or from the web. Pinterest presents a helpful tool for brand direction by analyzing what is frequently Pinned and why.

Via Mashable

With over 400,000 visitors per month – and rapidly growing – Pinterest is a huge referral source for brands. Real Simple recently reported that Pinterest drove more traffic to its website than Facebook in the month of October. Smaller brands should take note of Cabot Cheese, which uses Pinterest to curate photos of food that can be made with its cheese — other boards include fun photos of cows, farms and Vermont.

While the site’s list of etiquette states “avoid self-promotion,” aka soft sell, it does not include stipulations around contests. Lands’ End took advantage of this in December with the engagement contest Lands’ End Canvas Pin It to Win It. The promotion encouraged users to browse its modern clothing line and make Boards for a chance to win apparel.

Pinterest (pronounced to rhyme with “interest”) is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections. The mission statement of Pinterest is to connect everyone in the world through shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting. Pinterest is managed by a team based in Palo Alto, California. Noted entrepreneurs and investors include: Jack Abraham, Michael Birch, Scott Belsky, Brian S. Cohen, Shana Fisher, Ron Conway, Kevin Hartz, Jeremy Stoppelman, Hank Vigil, and Fritz Lanman. Users label and create theme-based image boards. Users can populate their own boards with media found online using the Pin It button.

Pins show up on the homepage through a Pin Feed that takes into account timing of pin, re-pinning activity, ‘like’ activity, and comment activity as well as your personal interests based on the board/pinners you follow. Pins may be divided into pictures, videos, discussions, and gifts.

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